Deng Xiaoping’s Duke Law Alumnus Grandson Named County Official

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- The grandson of late Chinese leader
Deng Xiaoping, a Duke University law school graduate who later
worked for U.S. law firm White & Case LLP, was named deputy head
of a county in southern China, the People’s Daily website said.

Deng Zhuodi, in his late 20s, will oversee economic
development, law, agriculture, poverty alleviation and major
projects in Guangxi province’s Pingguo county, today’s report
said, citing local media. Pingguo is part of the city of Baise,
where Deng Xiaoping helped lead a Communist uprising in 1929
against the Nationalist government.

Deng Zhuodi’s appointment illustrates the influence of
China’s so-called princelings, the descendants of the founding
fathers of Communist China. Chinese President Xi Jinping, the
son of a top party official, held a party post at the county
level in northern China’s Hebei province early in his career.

A county official in Pingguo confirmed that Deng Zhuodi had
been in his post for several months. The official, reached by
telephone, asked not to be identified, saying the details aren’t
public information.

The descendants of the Communist revolutionaries are part
of an elite network that has gained access to education abroad
and jobs in finance and government, Bloomberg News reported on
Dec. 27.

“In the 80s and 90s, princelings went into business,”
said Bo Zhiyue, a senior research fellow at the East Asian
Institute at the National University of Singapore. “But
starting a few years ago you see signs that these people are
turning back to politics.”

Economic Opportunities

The younger Deng was born in 1985 while his grandfather
oversaw the country’s economic opening that lifted China out of
poverty and created opportunities for princelings to get rich.
Deng Xiaoping died in 1997.

Deng Zhuodi is the son of Deng Xiaoping’s younger son Deng
Zhifang, who earned a physics Ph.D. at the University of
Rochester in the 1980s before returning to China to work in
property.

“Deng Zhuodi gives the impression of having great
knowledge and ability, yet is low-key, modest, careful and
diligent, and never gives media interviews, local officials and
citizens say,” People’s Daily said.

A bridge player like his grandfather, Deng Zhuodi received
a degree from Duke’s law school in 2008, according to the
school’s alumni web page. He went on to work at White & Case.